The HEART of Accounting™

You can “jump-start” your learning of basic accounting
concepts by taking this NEW “break-through” course in just
FOUR hours or less!!

Dear Visitor:

I assume you are visiting my Real Life Accounting (RLA)
website because you are interested in learning
more about financial accounting. Perhaps you’ve already evaluated
your training needs and want to know more about The HEART of
Accounting course.
If not, you may want to click over to it now before
reading on, as this evaluation could prove helpful
in deciding whether this is the right course
for you.

IS “The HEART
of Accounting” COURSE RIGHT FOR YOU?

I recognize that many people may just want an introduction to accounting,
or only a refresher on how debits and credits work. Some students may
want a primer to jump-start them before starting two semesters of formal
college accounting. It could be that business owners want to learn enough
about accounting to communicate intelligently with their accountant or
accounting staff. There may be lots of reasons why people only want an
accounting course that is brief and to the point.

With this in mind, I have written an introductory accounting course
that gets right to the heart of the matter. That’s why I call this
course, “The
HEART of Accounting".

This short four-hour course is designed to build a core of
knowledge that will provide a foundation from
which you can further your accounting education.

What can you learn
in four hours?

The truth is that you simply cannot learn everything you need to know
about accounting in four hours. You can learn, however, the “heart” or
essence of double-entry accounting within that time frame when you take
this course. For instance, you will learn:

What Double-Entry accounting is and how it works.

What the General Ledger is and how it functions.

What a Chart of Accounts is and how it is used.

What Financial Statements are and how they are organized.

What Debits and Credits are and how to use them.

What a General Journal is and the purpose it serves.

How to write General Journal entries using debits
and credits.

How to record General Journal entries into the General
Ledger.

How Financial Statements are prepared from the General
ledger.

After completing the above steps, you will have a hands on
idea about how the accounting cycle works from start to finish.
Having worked through the steps yourself, you will see that it actually
was not that difficult. Furthermore, your confidence
in your ability to learn and understand more advanced accounting will
be greatly enhanced.

Taken other accounting
classes and still don’t “get it”?

I have taught this same seminar to live audiences and, at the end,
you should see the faces light up when the students finally get
it. If you are not sure where accounting begins or ends, then
the whole process can seem very mysterious and intimidating. You might
even be thinking it would be better to take a class with a live instructor
who can answer your questions rather than take a written course all by
yourself.

Well, fear not! This is a break-through course.
This course is written in such a manner that you will not feel alone.
In fact, you won’t be because you can ask me questions directly by e-mail, or telephone. Furthermore, you are not going to
find in this course any arcane, dry, jargonized explanations. Nor will
you see a concept explained out of context with other concepts, leaving
you hanging and wondering what in the world I’m talking about.

Step-by-Baby-Step
- The only way to go!

I have breached the wall of confusion that has surrounded accounting
courses in the past and have found a way to teach the concepts of debits
and credits to the average person in a painless and rather enjoyable
way. I start at the beginning and link each concept logically to the
next. You build your accounting knowledge brick by brick just like building
a house. You don’t build the roof before laying the foundation.
Do first things first, as the old saying goes. As I tell all my students,
go slowly and make sure you fully understand each concept as it is presented
before going on to the next.

SEE FOR YOURSELF

Click
on the title below to download the Table of Contents, Introduction and
Part 1 of the course.

Note: Downloaded files and the course
itself require Adobe Reader or other PDF file viewer. Click the link
at right to download your free copy of Adobe Reader.

Knowing how to write general journal entries is, essentially, the ability
to convert financially related physical events, (such as, selling goods
and services to customers and depositing money into a bank account),
into accounting transactions so they can be recorded onto the company
books. This is a skill that must be mastered in order to speak the language
of business, which is accounting. To do this requires a solid grasp of
how debits and credits work. Unique to this course, is my innovative “six-step
method” that makes these critical concepts easy to learn.

There are two components to learn when using accounting software packages.
The first component is the software itself; the manufacturer provides
a manual or guide that will teach you how to use the software. The second
component (usually missing) is knowledge of accounting, so you can:

Understand what the software is supposed to do for you.

Provide the information to the software program that is required
for your books to be complete and accurate when finished.

The HEART of Accounting course will teach you how
to do just that!!

Guaranteed 100%

I designed this course to jump-start your accounting
knowledge by letting you see the big picture first.
Once you see how it all fits together, your face will light up with the
same excitement and enthusiasm as the live audiences. I guarantee
it. If you are not absolutely satisfied with this course, I
will gladly return your money with no questions asked. This is a RISK
FREE offer to you.

Yes, it’s true, you must have certain basic skills in order to
successfully complete this course. Test yourself by answering the following
four questions:

Do you know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide?

Do you know left from right?

Do you know the difference between up and down?

Do you know how to use decimals?

If you answered “yes” to all of the above questions then
you are fully qualified to learn the accounting concepts presented in
this course.

Time to Get Started!

Now that you know you are fully qualified to learn accounting, I invite
you to take a short walk with me into the world of accounting. Relax,
take a deep breath, clear your mind, and let me show you how easy it
is to understand accounting.

Do you know that you can account for every penny using a double-entry
accounting system? Whoever invented this system was a genius. What you
are going to learn is no less than learning how to play a musical instrument.
I only wish I could be there to see and hear you play your first tune.
Shall we begin?

Cordially,

Accounting for Non-Accountants

Accounting for Non-Accountants is a 20-hour strictly online accounting
course that requires no textbook or live instructor.
It is a self-paced accounting tutorial that can
be taken 24/7 conveniently in your own home,
office, or from any computer that has access
to the Internet.

What Can You Learn From This Course?

You will learn double-entry accounting! This means understanding how
debits and credits work. Acquiring this skill is the key that unlocks
the mystery of accounting and makes it so you can speak the language
of business, which is accounting.

You will then use this skill to convert financial events that occur
in a business, such as selling goods and services, etc., into accounting
transactions using the standard accounting journals.

This course will provide you with a hands on core
of knowledge as to how small business financial statements are organized,
prepared, and analyzed.

Here’s is a thumbnail of how the course is set up.

There a six phases to the course. The first four phases are theory based.
The fifth phase is an extensive practice session. The
sixth phase is a short management accounting session
that deals with analysis.

First, you are going to learn the basic concepts, principles, and
techniques that must be understood in order to
complete the practice session. The practice session
is similar to what accountants call a “client
write-up”. For accountants to prepare a company’s
financial statements, they must have certain
materials from the client. These materials consist
of a bank statement, check register, deposit
and/or sales information, payroll reports, and
any other pertinent items. The accountant reviews
this information carefully, organizes and inputs
the information into a computer and then runs
a set of financial statements. This is what
you will learn to do in the practice session.

First, you will learn how to value and buy a business. Next, you
will create a set of books from scratch for a sole proprietorship. You
will prepare monthly financial statements for a sole proprietorship until,
at a certain time, you will transition into a partnership and eventually
into a corporation. This will all happen during twelve monthly accounting
periods. At the end of the year, you will close the books in preparation
for the coming year. Working with the three main business entities will
provide you with a sense of the similarities and differences in their
respective accounting functions.

In the management section, you will be given a management checklist
from which you can use to quickly analyze your own company’s books
and prove the balance totals. You will be able to do this because you
will now know exactly where the numbers came from and what they mean.

Find out more about the course

There is a blue box on this page with a menu of items that will provide
more in-depth detail about this course. Be sure to access this information
because you will find many of your questions answered. If you have any
unanswered questions, please go to Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ) for further review. If you still have any unanswered
questions contact John Day directly.